The Relationship Between Physical Activity, Physical Fitness and Overweight in Adolescents: A Systematic Review of Studies Published in or After 2000

Overweight and obesity has been called a global epidemic by the World Health Organization [1]. The prevalence of overweight and obesity is especially dramatic in economically developed countries [2] and not only in adults but also in children and adolescents. In Germany for instance, 17% of adolescents aged 14 to 17 years are overweight and nearly 9% are obese [3]. Similarly, in the United States, 18% of adolescents aged 12 to 19 years were obese in 2007/2008 [4]. In accordance with the literature [5-9], the term overweight includes obesity in this review.